Adriana Kertzer

Adriana Kertzer is a lawyer, cultural producer, and author.

A leading expert on the use of references to the Brazilian slums in the branding of luxury items, Adriana is the author of Favelization, a book originally published by the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum (Smithsonian Institution). She a Partner at Plant Medicine Law Group, a psychedelics and cannabis law firm.

Previously, Adriana was the Managing Partner of Chestnut Hill Advisory Partners (a cultural consultancy); worked for the Obama Administration as the Senior Advisor to the Senior Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; Curatorial Assistant & Digital Strategist at the Museum of Arts and Design; Teaching Assistant at Parsons The New School for Design; Curatorial Fellow at the Cooper Hewitt Museum; and Acting Assistant General Counsel at the Guggenheim Museum. Prior to her life as a design entrepreneur, Adriana was a corporate lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, focused on Brazilian IPOs.

Adriana has been a featured speaker at the Museo Amparo, Brown University, Parsons The New School For Design, Queens College/CUNY, General Assembly, The Line, Zona Maco México Arte Contemporáneo, University of Hong Kong, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

She received her BA from Brown University, JD from Georgetown Law Center, and MA from Parsons The New School for Design.

Adriana grew up in São Paulo, Brazil and now lives in New York City with her husband and two Havanese, Cachaça and Scotch. She is fluent in Portuguese, English and Italian and is known for having a healthy disregard for the impossible.

www.adrianakertzer.com